2/21 Wednesday - Your Whole Life Affects Your Recovery

Kendra takes a moment to focus before she moves the barbell. 
I am continuing this week's theme of recovery for my Whole Life Wednesday post. There's a reason we do multiple Whole Life Challenges rather than just a Paleo, Whole30, Zone, or Macro nutrition challenge. While nutrition is a keystone in your recovery program, it is your WHOLE LIFESTYLE that affects your recovery from yesterday's training and prepares you for today's. 
It's no secret I am a HUGE fan of Coach Ben Bergeron. His Project Elevation program is all about helping CrossFitters, Coaches and Affiliate Owners up their game and live their best possible lives. Have you noticed our new Five Factors Of Health poster in the gym? Yep, I got in from Project Elevation. The Five Factors of Health are 

1. Eat: Real food, not too much, mostly plants
2. Sleep: 7-9 hours a night, every night
3. Train: 5x a week of constantly varied, functional movements at high intensity
4. Think: Never whine, never complain, never make excuses
5. Connect: Build, sustain, & grow deep relationships 

Doesn't this look similar to the 7 Healthy Habits of the Whole Life Challenge? The 7 Healthy Habits are:

1. Eat: Whole unprocessed foods
2. Sleep: 7-9 hours every night
3. Exercise: 10 minutes every day 
4. Mobility: 10 minutes every day 
5. Hydration: 1/3 of your bodyweight in ounces of water everyday 
6. Well-Being: Focus on improved well-being with different weekly healthy lifestyle practices 
7. Reflect: Think about your day and record a daily introspection on your lifestyle

Nutrition, sleep, exercise, introspection (self-awareness) and connection to yourself and others are common to both programs. These 5 common elements constitute our lifestyle. How we eat and drink, how we sleep, how we exercise and how we engage with ourselves and others make up who we are. These lifestyle elements make us happy or unhappy. They make us physically, mentally and spiritually fit (or not.) 
If you are frustrated with your workout performance, your happiness, your satisfaction with your life, take a good hard look at your lifestyle. Improving your lifestyle will have a greater impact on your recovery than will taking special supplements, pounding pre-workout concoctions, or falling prey to the the powder, pill or gel that will help you "CRUSH YOUR NEXT WORKOUT." 
Your WHOLE LIFE affects your recovery. Your recovery affects your performance. Your recovery affects your happiness, your satisfaction, and your mood. In short, your recovery affects everything. Put some attention to it and watch your life improve. 

Click Here for The WOD

Randy with Big Sky VO2 Testing will be here on Saturday offering Resting Metabolic Rate testing and VO2 Max testing. He needs a minimum of 5 people to run each test. RMR requires a 4 hour fast and no exercise 12 hours prior and takes 15 mins, VO2 Max requires no exercise 24 hours prior to testing and can take 5-15 mins. He can start the testing as early as 8AM. He is offering a 10% discount on both tests. Anyone who did RMR last time gets a 10% discount on VO2 Max testing. Please let me know if you're interested.